So, if God is not amoral by the Bible's standards and is hinted to not be amoral by the universe's standards, the question then is God immoral? As mentioned earlier, for God to be immoral, we would have to see Him violating the code which He Himself has created for Himself.

The Bible, to be honest, does not talk about God creating a moral code for Himself very much. It DOES talk about Him creating a moral code for humans. For example, He has given humans two commandments - love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind and love your neighbor as yourself.

Now, the rest of the laws such as do not murder, do not steal, do not worship other gods, etc. are merely built off those two. So, this law does not really make a whole lot of sense when applied to God though. Perhaps, the idea of God's morality is His love for humankind.

That is purely theoretical though. The Bible says God IS love. With that being in mind, that may be why love is the ultimate morality for man, and in like manner may be the ultimate moral code God follows as well.

Do we see God violating this law of love? While there is Hell, there is also a promise of total, pure forgiveness for all creatures that have ever lived regardless of their past as long as they are willing to accept that forgiveness. This forgiveness God was willing to achieve, even if it meant total humiliation and giving up of all that is His for a time, even to suffer the humiliation of being put to death physically by those who He create. I can think of no greater act of selflessness and pure love than this.

So where do the accusations of God being evil come from?

First, is the accusation that God allows evil, so He must be evil.

For a second, let's imagine God did not allow evil. If that was true, you, yourself, would not be able to do anything wrong ever. You would not be able to even have a choice to do right or wrong. Even if you didn't see a problem with something like pre-marital sex or "white lies", if it didn't fit God's view, you are not even given an option to do it. Would you enjoy that? Would that be love? God allows all evil, including mine and yours, because He gives us the choice to obey or not. That choice causes pain, but we are the ones who choose to cause the pain, not God. If your mom says you can watch your favorite or least favorite movie and you pick the second, it's on you because you had the choice. If your mom tells your brother not to take something from you and he does anyway, that's not your mom's fault, but your brother's. God is in no way violating His own laws by allowing us to violate them.

Evil exists because freedom to choose exists. By loving humans enough to give them choices, even bad ones that hurt others, does not violate His law of love, but rather validates it. It proves that God's love is so great, that He is willing to allow choices EVEN if they are not what He would want.

Secondly, humans have been given responsibility for the earth. The Bible says God gave dominion over all the earth to us. Both in a moral and physical sense. In a sense then, it is not necessarily God's responsibility to make us good or make the world good as of right now. It IS His responsibility to inform us, which He has. God also has become Jesus Christ, a human, and promises to return to reign over the world forever one day. When He does so He will totally regain responsibility for the world. Meanwhile though, it has been given to us.

Genesis 1:28 - And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Another thing said though is that there are those who say God is evil because He punishes people with Hell.

So, just so things are clear, if God were to punish people for what they did, they would claim God is an evil dictator and tyrant. Yet if God does not judge people, they claim He does not care and is evil for letting it happen? So either way, God is put in this dilemma where He is "evil" regardless of what He does.

To be frank though, as we mentioned above, God is not responsible to make us do good, especially if He wants us to have freedom to choose. He does though have the responsibility to inform us (which He has) and He also has the responsibility to provide consequences for your actions.

It's just like that in the human world. The government has the responsibility of making laws and punishing those that disobey it. It is not their responsibility to prevent crime. The only way to do that would to have a surveillance system with armed guards everywhere and literally zero freedom. Even then, that could not control the souls of people who want to rebel. So, we have a system where people can choose to disobey the law, and if so, they will pay consequences. Does this mean the judges and law makers don't love the people of the land? No. In fact, this judgment is necessary to bring about the right actions and order society needs. If anything, many of these law makers love our nation and want the best for it.

Even better than the law makers though, God allows escape for judgement. Few judges allow the total forgiveness to the crimes God is willing to forgive. Murder, rape, major theft, abuse, God is willing to forgive all of that and help a person be what they should. He won't force it, but offers it freely. There must be consequences for evil though. As the speaker Ravi Zacharias writes, "Are you implying there should be choice with no consequence?"

Perhaps not, perhaps you think there should be consequence, just not what God says it is, which is hell. To say that though, is to say that you, who have lived less than one hundred years, know more about how to deal with humans and more about how justice works than the God of the universe who has been acquainted with humans for thousands of years. That a person who has a high school, bachelors, or even masters degree, knows more than someone who literally created the world they could study in all its complexity, the one who thought up the brain that He allows to criticize it.

It is to say that someone who makes something has no right to do with it what He wishes. If you make a cake, you have every right to do what you want with it, yet God who made humans does not have this same right? In like manner, if you break someone's window, you can't just say, "Oh, here's five dollars. It's okay now." Rather, the person who's window you broke or the police decide what the penalty is. Yet again, we do not recognize God's right in this.

Romans 9:20-21 - Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?

This is something I think we as humans don't like to recognize. We like to think that humanity is the one who has the ultimate right and handing this over to someone else is annoying or even enraging. Yet that does not change the truth of it if God is real.

The final question I will address is, if God is good how come He committed genocide?

Often, this is referring to the Jews waging war in the Bible. The claim goes like this, "There were innocent people living innocent lives when suddenly God had the Jewish people murder them all and take their land." That is an EXTREMELY oversimplification of the events though.

First, there is the claim that the people were innocent. If you consider people committing bestiality, incest with their parents, and burning their newborn infants alive innocent, then yes, you are correct. These societies were not societies of people just living peaceful lives and then one day God just decided to kill them all, but these people were some of the literally most depraved people ever to live. God had given them centuries to repent (from the time of Abraham to Moses, which was about 400 years) yet they still lived that way. Eventually, God said, "Enough."

Leviticus 18:7 - The nakedness of thy father, or the nakedness of thy mother, shalt thou not uncover: she is thy mother; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness.

21 - And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the Lord.

23 - Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion.

27-29 - (For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled;) That the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you. For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among their people.

God wasn't just like that to these people either. God was like this also with Israel. When the Jewish people also burned their children alive, started prostituting their children, and committing other sins, which they had promised to God Himself they would not do, He also had other nations conquer them. They had no real country until 1948, and even now they don't have the same amount of land like they used to. Now, He had made a vow that eventually they would return to the land, but only because they agreed to always have God as their God. God does not play favorites. Anyone who lives in Israel and lives a depraved life will be punished with the turmoil of war. The ONLY reason the Israelites were shown the mercy they were was because their ancestors made a promise to God that no other people did. That's it. If it were not for that, they probably also would have been punished the same way.

It is similar in other places of accusation. For example, the Egyptians were judged harshly, but they had been enslaving the Israelites for hundreds of years. If God judged the USA for enslaving black and Native Americans for one hundred years, I'm sure many would say, "Serves them right!" Yet when the Egyptians enslaved the Israelites for much longer and to the point where they tried to extinguish their race, people are appalled. Even then, God still has had mercy and allowed Egypt to exist even to this day. God never judges a nation harshly without a reason and often also a long time to repent.

I do not believe I have addressed everything I could have here, but I think this is a start to addressing some of the questions people may have about God and His being evil.